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About

This virtual exhibition celebrates the extraordinary diversity and fascinating evolutionary history of Australia’s flora.

It represents a major undertaking from artist Talia Delaney, with work on the project spanning three decades.  

‘As an 8th-generation Australian born near the Warrumbungle Mountains in New South Wales, I absorbed the blue-hazed mountain wilderness and dusty red earth plains as if by osmosis... The Australian wilderness is, and always has been, a vital part of my art and psyche’.

Influences on Talia’s work include her travels in Asia and Europe, and study with prominent artists in the United States, where she completed her university studies in art. Talia developed and refined her non-traditional approach to watercolour while living in the US, when as a response to the cold, long winters of Michigan she started to paint large blown-up studies of colourful flora.

On her return to Australia, Talia travelled the Australian wilderness for several years with her two children, painting many works on location and collecting material to underpin the creation of many more in subsequent years. 

Talia painting on location at Umbrawarra Gorge in the Northern Territory

Her focus crystallised in the ambition to create a carefully planned series of works to reflect the complex evolutionary history of Australia’s magnificent flora, combining science and art. While botanically accurate, the artworks focus on plants in their natural environment, allowing Talia to showcase and celebrate Australia’s wilderness with her signature dramatic flair.      

The works in the series feature plants, fossils and landscapes reflecting a timescale of billions of years. Hundreds of plants from across Australia are depicted, on location in a contemporary setting—typically in one of Australia’s magnificent National Parks. Several works are composites, bringing together aspects from a variety of location and (as in reality!) plants of various lineages will appear alongside one another.

The journey begins at Hamelin Pool in Western Australia, with the tiny oxygen-producers that gave us all life... Go to Section 1.

Knowledge also evolves

Talia undertook extensive research while completing the series, consulting key sources relating to plant evolution to inform her works. Her writing and works reflect scientific knowledge as it stood at the time. In recent years significant revision has been made to plant taxonomy, with many changes to names, and to where species are grouped in relation to one another. This is in large part due to DNA sequencing, which offers insights beyond examination of the physical form. You will encounter some scientific information in these pages that is not current, including superseded plant names.

All references included in-text are listed on the Discover more page of this site.

More about the artist

Now based in Adelaide, Talia has exhibited extensively, and her work is held in private and corporate collections in Australia and overseas. Her work has been accepted into the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize several times, and she has received awards for works in exhibitions in both Australia and the United States. Talia is a Fellow of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts. Talia no longer accepts commissions.

Talia’s approach to watercolour

Talia’s favourite medium is watercolour, which she values for the vibrant colours and the freedom of expression it allows. She is a strong advocate of combining watercolour and gouache, and using a broad palette—‘a limited palette produces limited paintings’.